9 COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA MISTAKES

Social media networks if well used can be one of the biggest sources of traffic to your site. Most bloggers get to social media hoping to benefit from the big traffic presence there but get frustrated when things don’t work out as they anticipated. In this article we look at some of the mistakes most users make on social media that could be contributing to them not getting the best results in terms of traffic from these networks.

SHARING ONLY YOUR OWN CONTENT

Sharing only your own content may not lead to your fan base growing that much, in fact your audience may get bored by the same content coming from same source. Try as much as possible to share content from other sources, this will increase engagement and your audience base will grow significantly.

Try as much as possible to understand the different social media platforms that you are using in terms of their content expectations. Having tailored content for each platform increases reach and engagement. E.g. Content related to careers will work well on LinkedIn better than other networks, Hashtags can help increase your reach on Instagram but they quite don’t have the same effect on Facebook.

FOCUSING ON QUANTITY OVER QUALITY

Posting less but quality content will increase your reach and engagement. Reducing the number of posts that you make in a day, enables you to focus more on the quality of the posts rather than quantity.

NOT UPLOADING VIDEOS ONTO SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Note that native videos are likely to be shared more times than YouTube videos on social media platforms. So ensure that you upload your videos directly to your social media other than posting YouTube links.

NOT BOOSTING THE RIGHT POSTS

When it comes to Facebook ads, do not just boost any posts that you think may perform well, rather look for those existing Facebook posts that have a high engagement rate. This gives you an indication of how successful the post is likely to be when boosted. To find details on engagement rate, go to your Facebook page insights posts tab, there you can be able to see the engagement rates for the published posts. Boost the posts with highest engagement rates.

NOT REPLYING TO QUESTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Try as much as possible to reply quickly to all the mentions and messages on your Facebook page, Twitter profile and Instagram profile from one place say by using your preferred social media monitoring and engagement tool. If you respond to your audience, they are likely to come back or share the good experience with other people.NOT TARGETING A SPECIFIC AUDIENCE FOR YOUR CONTENT

Try to limit your posts to the relevant audience, for example by using Facebook, you can easily target your posts to a given audience that is more relevant to what you are promoting hence increasing the engagement rate.

USING ONLY LANDSCAPE VIDEOS AND IMAGES

If you compare Landscape & Square videos and images, you will notice that Square videos and images tend to perform better on Facebook page and Twitter profile. Therefore it is worth trying to experiment to find out which videos and images perform better.

BEING ON ALL SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Take stock of your social media profiles and consider channels that are performing for you and those that aren’t. You can decide to stop using certain platforms if they are not working for you. Fewer channels enables you focus more on better content and engage more with your audience.

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Author: John Mulindi

John is very passionate about Digital marketing. He blogs on topics ranging from Social Media marketing, Search Engine optimization, Internet Marketing, Email Marketing, to Personal Development. In free time he likes watching Football, Reading, Listening to music and taking Nature walks.
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Dr. Elise, thanks for visiting. I believe if you select Facebook groups especially those that are suited to your niche, and be active, then you stand a high chance of driving people to your blog. I personally drive more than 70% of my traffic from Facebook groups, and have come to appreciate their importance when building an online community for a blog.

It depends, I usually post old posts once in a while, this brings in additional traffic. Provided the content is of high quality, you can post over and over again. With regard LinkedIn, you will get more engagements on your posts if you post career related posts there, as compared to just any other topic. Find what works well for each network and try to leverage on it.

People ask me for blog advice all the time – specifically – “how can I grow my traffic?”… And my answer is: DO THE WORK – IE: VISIT OTHER PEOPLE’S BLOGS and leave meaningful comments and engage with them! If you want people to visit you, you have to visit them!

Hi, you hit the nail on the head! Blogging is not all about creating content and leaving it there, you need to promote it to your desired audience. Successful bloggers will tell you that they spend more time promoting than writing.

John – These are great tips for people trying to utilize social media to advance a blog or business. You included more depth and varied your suggestions so I was able to really gain insights from your post.

Thanks for the tips! I especially loved the idea of focusing on quality over quantity. It’s not a race, and I, for one, get tired of seeing “fluff”. I’ll be checking out some of your other posts as well.

Hi, thanks for passing by, Native videos get more engagements since they are uploaded directly on social media or played directly in the feed as opposed to Youtube videos that are hosted at different place.

Hi John thanks for sharing this. I saw on one of your responses to focus on FB groups – I think I will do that. I also know that I’m not engaging with Twitter at all (mainly focusing in IG as it’s so visual) and am not very comfortable with using twitter – one for the to do list! At the moment my posts from my blog and IG are posted across on twitter. I’ve made notes and will try to implement your tips. New to blogging so a lot to get to grips with at the beginning! 🙂

Great post! It’s definitely hard not to fall into the trap of signing up for every social media platform out there and posting on all of them. Tumblr and Twitter are my weakest ones and I’m debating on getting rid of them altogether. I don’t do anything on linkedin or google plus because my content I don’t feel will do well. I also agree about boosting other bloggers posts. It always seems like it’s one blogger vs. another but really we are community. We should stick together and help each other out! There’s plenty of room on the internet for all of us! 🙂

Great post John! I am still new to the blogging world, so every bit of helpful information makes the difference! I am on more than a few social media sites, and I may trim that down some. As of now, I have noticed that Pinterest and Facebook bring in most of my traffic. I’ll work on enhancing my presence there. Thanks!

Thanks for all these tips :). I am really glad for the tip on how to boost the right post on Facebook ad , because I think I used to post that I liked the most but it might not be the right one to promote my blog. I will try to take a look at my insights before boosting a post.

Personally Facebook is the best for promotion, 80% of my traffic come from FB, though it comes with a lot of work. You have to be very active in facebook groups to be able to drive any traffic to your blog. The other platform that I use is Pinterest, but am still working on it.

A huge issue I had when I first started taking blogging seriously was trying to maintain every social media platform consistently and it was just too much. Now I’ve limited the social media platforms I use and have a better presence on all of them. There’s a few things you’ve listed that I am guilty of doing so I’ll need to rethink my social media strategy.

Really good tips! I’m signed up to a few different social medias but I primarily focus on two of them. For some reason. I really struggle with Twitter and have never really been into tweeting lol. I love Instagram the most, I guess I’m a pictures kind of person.

Hi Jenn, focusing on a few that are working for you is the best thing to do. Personally I focus on around 3, and I have seen great positive results with that otherwise thanks for your insightful comments.

Thanks for the helpful tips. Right now, I think Twitter and Google+ are the platforms I struggle the most with. Google+ I can easily see passing on but people are ALL over Twitter. I just need to learn how to harness it.

Hi Raquel, I too struggle with Twitter and Google+ but I have put my focus on Facebook and Pinterest, that is where most of my traffic comes from. Facebook groups if used well can bring in big traffic numbers.

Very good points! I especially liked the one about posting other content besides my own. I must admit, I’m trying to figure out FB. I get a lot of LIKES but hardly comments even when I ask an opened question. I was thinking I needed to post other content besides my own but I look for engagement. So I didn’t want to post other stuff and not get any engagement on those either. Idk… I’m still learning and trying to figure out this marketing industry lol. Thanks again!

I like your point about focusing on quality instead of quantity. I notice some bloggers post almost daily. That is a lot of content to manage and market. I like to post twice a week and the max being 3 times. Then I can focus on a quality article and tweak it as necessary. That also gives me the opportunity to really market that article. Thanks for sharing

I think the most important thing to do with social media is learn where to focus your efforts. If you spread your efforts out over too many social networks, you may not get the same attention as you would if you figured out the best network for your audience and spent the most effort on that one.

All great tips! I especially like the last one about being on all social media platforms. This can be a real time waster and you are likely connecting with people who have already seen your post over and over again which can cause them to skip over your content in the future. I always tell my clients to focus only on the platforms where there ideal audience is.

Some very useful tips for Social Media use. I do find it all overwhelming at times, as there are so many outlets to use. I am focusing on Pinterest this year and so far the results have been excellent driving traffic to my travel blog. Thanks for the tips! Rob

Now posting videos on Social Media is very important as it grabs a large audience. This helped me manage to get few cents selling my products which was not possible with just post share.
And we should definitely avoid above listed method.

I agree with you on all points, especially on the last one. Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn (for example) are three completely different types of social media, targeting different audiences. Figure out where your audience hangs out the most and use that channel. Don’t waste time and energy on where they are not.

Great read, I definitely needed this as I’ve been struggling with social media. I noticed I post the same content to all platforms & should focus more on really high quality posts. Thanks for the insight!

Thanks so much for this post! Of the 3 social media platforms I’m on I have struggle with Facebook. It seems like no one ever sees my Facebook posts . I link Facebook and instagram together and get 200 likes on a picture but zero on Facebook. I see now that I need to treat them differently and make some changes to my Facebook page .

I think when it comes to Facebook, try to focus more on groups, join FB groups in your niche, engage members, participate in daily promotional threads. If you do these, you will see improvements in your traffic from Facebook.